SOPHIE B. HAWKINS RETURNS TO LONDON
FOR FIRST UK HEADLINE SHOW
IN CLOSE TO TWO DECADES
GRAMMY® AWARD-NOMINATED, RIAA PLATINUM-CERTIFIED SINGER-SONGWRITER
ANNOUNCES FIRST INTERNATIONAL DATE ON HER FREE MYSELF TOUR
EAGERLY AWAITED HEADLINE PERFORMANCE
SET FOR SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26 AT LONDON’S THE FORGE
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
ACCLAIMED NEW ALBUM, FREE MYSELF, AVAILABLE NOW
GRAMMY® Award-nominated, RIAA Platinum-certified singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins, has announced her first UK headline performance in almost two decades, set for Sunday, November 26 at London’s The Forge (3-7 Delancey Street, Camden Town, NW1 7NL). The upcoming date marks the first international date on Hawkins’ Free Myself Tour, an ongoing headline run celebrating her acclaimed sixth studio album, Free Myself, available now HERE.
The first album released in over a decade, Free Myself finds the beloved songwriter, who enjoyed two of the biggest hits of the ‘90s with iconic singles “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” and “As I Lay Me Down”, at the top of her game, sharing some of her most soul-stirring songs about love, resilience, and self-empowerment. Widely praised by fans and the music media, Free Myself is considered a welcome return for Hawkins. With a spotlight on the album’s “Love Yourself,” both song and video have earned a place as an iconic anthem in the songwriter’s hugely impressive canon of songs shedding light on pressing issues. Described as “soul-stirring…symphonic pop whimsy,” by American Songwriter, highlighted as one of the “best (new) releases by NPR Music, alongside fellow standout track, “You Are My Balloon,” (NPR Song of the Week) and Forbes’ praising the video’s simplicity as reflecting the “self-care nature of the song,” “Love Yourself” is a live crowd pleaser.
With the eagerly awaited headline performance, Hawkins noted, “I made Whaler, my second album, while living in London. It ended up my most successful record and it saved my career.” Hawkins added, “I haven’t played London since 2005 so it’s going to be great being back, like going home.”
For more than three decades, Sophie B. Hawkins has been a chart-topping, award-winning superstar, a remarkably passionate singer, songwriter, and live performer lauded for her raw vocal power, dynamic eclecticism, and audacious songcraft, weaving sensual, contemplative lyricism through her own colorful, genre-blurring, pop approach. The New York-based artist dropped “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” upon an unsuspecting world in the summer of 1992, earning instant attention for its raw energy and unforgettable confession of lust and longing. The groundbreaking track struck a chord around the world, reaching the top 5 on Billboard’s “Hot 100,” the top 15 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart, and the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand, and Norway. Indeed, “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” remains a classic rock ballad more than 30 years after its initial release, featured on countless film and TV soundtracks as well as a multiformat radio staple around the globe.
Fueled by her zeitgeist-defining hit, Hawkins ascended to the forefront of 90s pop, receiving a prestigious GRAMMY® Award nomination for “Best New Artist” while her 1992 debut album, Tongues and Tails, more than affirmed the rising artist’s stunning talent, drawing critical applause and RIAA Gold certification in the US.
With the wind at her back, and then living in London, Hawkins followed up with 1994’s RIAA Gold-certified Whaler, once again dominating charts with such worldwide hits as the top 15 UK chart favorite, “Right Beside You,” and “As I Lay Me Down,” the latter of which received a 1996 ASCAP Pop Music Award for “Most Performed Song” after spending a record-shattering 67 weeks (including six weeks at #1) on Billboard’s “Adult Contemporary” chart as well as 44 weeks on the overall “Hot 100,” where it peaked at #6.
Hawkins staked her artistic reputation on the line with 1999’s adventurous Timbre, boldly prompting a lengthy battle with her label, Sony Music, over creative freedom and musical integrity, in an era when artists’ pursuit of ownership of their masters and determined independent thinking was considered a career risk. The album was ultimately hailed as Hawkins’ finest moment to date, with Rolling Stone writing, “the album showcases a singer who has honed and gathered her various vocal styles – somber folk singer, saucy pop gal, note-bending jazz chanteuse – into a sleek, multifaceted whole.”
Winning her fight for freedom and sacrificing the security of major label support along with it, Hawkins entered the 21st century as a trailblazing independent artist and founded her own Trumpet Swan label, rereleasing Timbre in 2001. The album has since proven a fan favorite as well as an influential landmark in the female singer-songwriter canon. Hawkins fearlessly expanded her musical horizons with 2004’s eclectic Wilderness, earning praise from Paste for its “impressionistic lyrics and shape-shifting melodies against multi-layered cross rhythms and colorful splashes of horns and guitars.” Live: Bad Kitty Board Mix followed in 2006, a long overdue concert album documenting Hawkins’ renowned on-stage prowess.
Much of the next decade was spent dedicating herself to family and fresh artistic pursuits, penning original songs and starring in the critically acclaimed touring musical, Room 105: The Highs and Lows of Janis Joplin, prompting The Hollywood Reporter to simply declare, “Hawkins was born to play Janis Joplin.” More importantly, both to her personal growth and the wide world at large, Hawkins proved a committed activist, devoted to LGBTQ advocacy, animal rights, environmental causes, and the support and promotion of her fellow female musicians.
2012’s The Crossing proved Hawkins’ most intimate work to date, a long brewing collection written and recorded during a period of intense personal change spanning the birth of her son and passing of her father. Though she stepped out for live appearances, Hawkins largely retreated from the spotlight once again, returning to New York after 17 years in Venice, CA and welcoming her second child, all the while honing the stunning new songs which would eventually form 2022’s eagerly awaited Free Myself. Co-produced with award-winning musician/producer/engineer Ken Rich (Ani DiFranco, Ingrid Michaelson), the album taps into the same passion-filled storytelling and colorful eclecticism that inspired her Tongues and Tails reflecting on what has been a trailblazing, revolutionary career while embarking on a new creative chapter of independence and positivity.
“I went through everything I’d written and recorded over these past years and thought, which songs really describe where I am now,” says Sophie B. Hawkins. “From the trauma of leaving LA and the pandemic to the newer songs, which are so happy and so light, Free Myself really sums up my journey. I definitely don’t feel hindered by the world anymore. Now I feel only hindered by my own willingness to try different things so I’m just so excited to see what comes next.”
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(Photo Credit: Nigel Dick)
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